Benchmark sold off $900 million of its Uber stock but wanted to sell more

Benchmark is selling nearly 15% of its stake in Uber to Softbank for about $900 million.

The deal is part of Softbank's effort to build up a big stake in ride-hailing giant Uber, by buying shares from existing shareholders and from Uber itself.

Softbank offered to buy shares from existing shareholders at a steep discount to Uber's most recent private valuation. Even so, shareholders offered to sell Softbank more shares than it wanted to buy, including Benchmark.

Benchmark, one of Uber's largest shareholders, offered to sell a quarter of its stake to Japan's Softbank and in the end sold about 14.5% for about $900 million, Recode reports citing anonymous sources.

&nbsp;30% discount from their last valuation. Softbank has also invested $1.25 billion of cash directly into the company at the last full share price>The sale was part of Softbank's huge investment into Uber. Softbank is buying up a 15% stake mostly by buying shares from existing shareholders at $33 a share, a steep 30% discount from their last valuation. Softbank has also invested $1.25 billion of cash directly into the company at the last full share price.

There has been much hand-wringing about this deal. Softbank told Uber that if it didn't sell it a big enough chunk of the company, the deal would be off and it would turn around and back Lyft, Uber's major rival, instead. Softbank has been backing Uber's rivals in other parts of the world.